Late last week and earlier this week, drivers in downtown Redmond may have seen people standing on street corners, holding up signs to save the old Nokomis building.

The building at 16210 N.E. 80th St. — which has housed the city’s first-ever library, the former Greater Redmond Chamber of Commerce and most recently, McDonald’s Book Exchange — is slated to be demolished to make way for a five-story building that will house residents as well as a possible coffee lounge, meeting room and art walk.

Alexa Munoz, who is the president of the Nokomis Club of Redmond and has been working to preserve the building, said they are taking action and taking the issue to the community to raise awareness about the issue.

“We haven’t given up,” she said.

Munoz said in addition to wanting to save the building, they are concerned that with a five-story building, they will lose the human scale in that part of downtown, which contains mostly one- to three-story buildings. She said a five-story building can have people feeling overwhelmed.

In addition, Munoz said the Nokomis building is also significant because it is one of the few buildings that was built by women.

Sandy Henderson, who lives in the building next to the Nokomis building, added that not only was it built by women, it was built during the Great Depression.

“Basically, we’d like to stop the project,” she said.